A downtown vision for East Meadow Avenue

The owner of the vacant property at 527 East Meadow Ave. that once housed Savini’s Crystalbrook, a popular family-operated catering hall, intends to bring businesses to the site and is pitching an additional twist that could change the landscape of the community’s downtown.
   
Through his developer, RMB Development Consultants, the property owner, Saeed Ahmed, presented two new proposals that would incorporate a mix of business and residential space at the one-acre site on the corner of Adelaide Court. The proposals offer alternatives to a current site plan already approved by the Town of Hempstead. The approved development, called Meadow Commons, is a 6,764-square-foot, one-floor shopping center with seven retail units and 20 parking spaces.
   
Ahmed and his developers unveiled the mixed-used options to an audience of about 40 residents on April 27 at a meeting of the Council of East Meadow Community Organizations in the East Meadow Library.
   
Richard Bivone, who owns RMB in East Meadow and presented the plans on Ahmed’s behalf, told the audience that the future of the property would be driven by community input. “There has always been talk about doing something on East Meadow Avenue, and we felt that this was a good time to come to our community and ask them if they felt that this was good,” said Bivone, an East Meadow resident. “If [they] don’t like it, that’s OK.”

The plans
   
Proposal A is a two-story building with retail space on the main floor and apartments above it. The plan includes seven 940-square-foot commercial units and nine 700-square-foot, one-bedroom apartments geared toward young professionals who would benefit from the proximity to the Bellmore train station and access to the parkways, planners said. There would be 24 parking spaces on site and 20 in a lot, also owned by Ahmed, across East Meadow Avenue.